Car Accidents

What Tort do I choose? Limited Tort or Full Tort?

Pennsylvania gives you two options in your choice of auto insurance:

• Limited tort is cheaper but severely limits the circumstances under which you can sue for pain and suffering; however, you can still recover economic losses.
• Full tort allows you to retain the right to sue for all damages: both economic, and pain and suffering.

Do I need Uninsured or Underinsured motorist coverage?

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage must be offered to you by your insurance carrier. This coverage is optional, but it is essential to protect you and your family if someone else is not insured properly. If you are hurt by a driver with little or no insurance, the consequences can be devastating

If you have more than one policy with UM/UIM coverage, or have multiple cars on one policy, you can stack your coverage to claim the maximum amount available under each policy and for each vehicle.

Even a minor fender bender may ultimately result in a “whiplash” neck injury or require back surgery. Do not wait to get experienced legal representation.

A substantial settlement for a women severely injured in a head-on collision

Our client was a 32-year-old teacher traveling to work at 7 a.m. on State Route 66. She was a front-seat passenger carpooling with a co-worker. A vehicle coming the opposite direction struck a tractor-trailer on the road ahead of the vehicle our client occupied. After impacting the rear of the tractor-trailer, the oncoming car continued to cross the center line and strike our client’s vehicle head-on. Our client had to be cut from the wreckage after being trapped for nearly 40 minutes. She had emergency surgery at a Pittsburgh hospital for extensive internal injuries, including lacerations of her liver and a perforated small intestine. She also suffered multiple other injuries, including trauma to her knee that resulted in chondromalacia. Months after her initial hospitalization, she had additional abdominal surgery to repair an umbilical hernia. She also had surgery to repair her Achilles tendon after that tendon ruptured due to the trauma of the accident, which reduced the blood supply to that tendon. After months of rehabilitation, she was able to return to work. After filing a lawsuit, the attorneys at Quatrini Law Group fought to get her a substantial settlement prior to trial.

Client in a Latrobe rear-end collision that resulted in three surgeries got a substantial settlement

Our client was traveling on Lloyd Avenue Extension in Latrobe, Pennsylvania and attempted to merge onto Lloyd Avenue. As she was waiting for a break in traffic, another vehicle failed to stop and collided with the rear-end of our client’s vehicle. The impact caused our client’s knee to hit the dashboard, resulting in a tear to her medial meniscus. This injury required our client to undergo three surgeries — two arthroscopic surgeries in which the surgeon performed a partial medial meniscectomy, partial lateral meniscectomy, and chondral shaving. These procedures did not alleviate her pain. Therefore, she underwent a third procedure, a total knee arthroplasty (knee replacement). Throughout this process, our client also received physical therapy and chiropractic treatment. The personal injury attorneys at Quatrini Law Group met with the client’s doctors to make sure that we had a thorough understanding of the client’s medical condition. A lawsuit was filed in Westmoreland County and the attorneys guided the client through a mediation process and obtained a substantial settlement before a trial began.

Represented a client who was life-flighted after her vehicle overturned in Jeannette

The personal injury attorneys at Quatrini Law Group represented a woman who was a passenger in a vehicle traveling on Radebaugh Road in Jeannette, Pennsylvania. Another vehicle attempted to pass the one in which our client was traveling, and our client’s driver went off the road. The vehicle overturned and our client was life-flighted to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Our client’s injuries included a right mandibular fracture, a large right lower jaw laceration that was so deep her muscle was exposed, a right upper quadrant abdominal wall laceration, and other serious injuries. She required surgical intervention to repair the fracture and laceration. The personal injury attorneys obtained the maximum limits of bodily injury liability insurance from both drivers.

Our attorneys did home visits for seriously injured client

We traveled to our client’s home to meet with her because she was confined to a hospital bed due to her serious injuries. This collision occurred because a driver going the opposite direction in a pickup truck lost control of his vehicle and crashed through the median barrier before hitting our client’s vehicle head-on. She was on her way home from a college class where she was studying to obtain her degree as a registered nurse.

Obtained liability, underinsured motorist and Social Security Disability Benefits for a client who lost her job as a result of her injuries

Our client suffered a concussion, fractured ribs, punctured lung, an open tibial shaft comminuted fracture and a closed patella fracture of one leg and a distal femur comminuted fracture of her other leg. She was admitted to a Pittsburgh hospital for over three weeks. When she was discharged, she was not permitted to bear weight on her feet for weeks. She underwent multiple surgeries after her discharge from her initial hospital admission. Also, she lost her job as a result of her injuries. We obtained the full amount of liability coverage from the pickup truck driver as well as our client’s underinsured motorist coverage.

Our office assisted her in a Social Security Disability claim as her injuries will keep her from working for over one year.